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Thereís lots of good little things in the works - but I fear we have passed the point of no return with climate change. Everything I read from science journals is sounding pretty hopeless.

It affects me a lot. Everyday I think about our collective future over the next 100 years. Now that Iím 57, a century is a short time. Iím actually glad that 2 of my 3 kids have not had children. I donít want my grandkids to suffer.

The Green New Deal is the most promising thing I've seen coming from the government. Various forms and angles on it have been in the news lately. It almost seems too good to be true, but one article claimed 65% support from even the Republicans (there must be a catch?).

On the one hand, with the environmental destruction agency partially shutdown the damage the republicans can do is limited. On the other hand I was also reading that various scientific studies regarding potential effects of climate change that include ongoing monitoring are not being completed because the government workers doing the monitoring and recording have been furloughed. So I'd say that the short-term outlook is decidedly mixed. Couple that with the fact that antarctic ice is supposedly melting way faster than previously thought and my optimism is pretty limited.

He government furlough barely three weeks old ...can’t possibly have an effect on failed mitigation of climate change.

How long do the scientific journals say the Antarctic ice will take to completely melt? And is there an interactive map to show the sea level when that occurs? Just would like to know whether I should be worried or not at my present location.

WS, after extensive research, er, ah rather, after looking up on Wikipedia, it is the Arctic ice that is melting the fastest and they are saying it may be ice free in the summer in the later part of the century under one of their emissions models. It would be unprecedented in recent geological history and the first time it has happened in the last 700,000 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climat..._in_the_Arctic

Since we are focusing on positive news though, it's my perception that coastal flooding in America will be less of a concern for us and more a concern for the next generation, so I think we will be OK if we can get past the tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, flooding, and fires.

WS, after extensive research, er, ah rather, after looking up on Wikipedia, it is the Arctic ice that is melting the fastest and they are saying it may be ice free in the summer in the later part of the century under one of their emissions models. It would be unprecedented in recent geological history and the first time it has happened in the last 700,000 years. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climat..._in_the_Arctic

Since we are focusing on positive news though, it's my perception that coastal flooding in America will be less of a concern for us and more a concern for the next generation, so I think we will be OK if we can get past the tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, flooding, and fires.

What is the explanation for why the Antarctic ice is growing? And are there not historic accounts of tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts, flooding and fires going back to the earliest knuckle dragging times of Homo Erectus?

WS, I've been in enough climate change debates to conclude that I'm not going to convince any climate change deniers of anything. The answers to your questions are out there and easy to look up and you can choose who to believe or not. For example, NASA says that melting glaciers from global warming are depositing freshwater into the southern oceans and since freshwater freezes at a higher temperature than salt water, the diluted saltwater around Antarctica has been freezing more readily and growing by area. However the saltwater ice beneath the ice cap has been melting at a feaster rate with a net ice loss.

And you can probably find reliable sources that say the wind, flooding and other extreme weather is more frequent and severe that historical records and I think there is general agreement among climatologist that this is due at least in part to human caused climate change. And they will get worse and damage economies and human health.